BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Owning 100 per cent of one apple tree is sadly still more attractive to many local businesses than owning only one per cent of an apple farm containing one million trees. Despite the fact that the latter options provides access to 10 000 trees, “calling the shots” seems to be higher up on the agenda than increasing profitablity through partnerships of various kinds.
For this reason, many commercial entities refuse to raise capital on the stock market, sell their brands (their intellectual property), adopt a franchising model to pursue growth, sell their companies to larger entities or enter in strategic partnerships with other companies. Though these moves require you to “lose” some of your say, small businesses will have to take either of these avenues if they are looking to experience serious growth. Some business start-ups will throw their hands in the air out of frustration because commerical banks will not lend them the money, but would refuse equity being offered by investors who, in return from their investment, would own part of the company and hence have a say in company decisions.